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Shōjo manga
's groundbreaking 1934 shōjo manga, The Mysterious Clover]] is manga aimed at a teenage female target-demographic readership. The name romanizes the Japanese '''少女 (shōjo), literally "young woman". Shōjo manga covers many subjects in a variety of narrative styles, from historical drama to science fiction, often with a focus on romantic relationships or emotions.Toku, Masami, editor. 2005. "Shojo Manga: Girl Power!" Chico, CA: Flume Press/California State University Press. . See also http://www.csuchico.edu/pub/cs/spring_06/feature_03.html. Accessed 2007-09-22. Strictly speaking, however, shōjo manga does not comprise a style or genre, but rather indicates a target demographic.Thorn, Matt (2001) "Shôjo Manga—Something for the Girls", The Japan Quarterly, Vol. 48, No. 3Thorn, Matt (2004) What Shôjo Manga Are and Are Not: A Quick Guide for the Confused, last modified December 18, 2006 History Japanese magazines specifically for girls, known as shōjo magazines, first appeared in 1903 with the founding of and continued with others such as (1906) and the long-running (1908).The Kikuyō Town Library . Retrieved on 2008-09-15. The roots of the wide-eyed look commonly associated with shōjo manga dates back to early shōjo magazine illustrations during the early 20th century. The most important illustrators associated with this style at the time were Yumeji Takehisa and particularly Jun'ichi Nakahara, who, influenced by his work as a doll creator, frequently drew female characters with big eyes in the early 20th century. This had a significant influence on early shōjo manga, evident in the work of influential manga artists such as and Riyoko Ikeda. Simple, single-page manga began to appear in these magazines by 1910, and by the 1930s more sophisticated humor-strips had become an essential feature of most girls' magazines. The most popular manga, Katsuji Matsumoto's Kurukuru Kurumi-chan (くるくるクルミちゃん), debuted on the pages of Shōjo no tomo (少女の友) in 1938.Thorn, Matt (2006) "Pre-World War II Shōjo Manga and Illustrations" matt-thorn.com As World War II progressed, however, "comics, perhaps regarded as frivolous, began to disappear".Schodt, Frederik L. (1983) Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics, Kodansha International Postwar shōjo manga, such as Shosuke Kurakane's popular Anmitsu Hime,Yonezawa, Yoshihiro, ed. (1991)Kodomo no Shōwa-shi: Shōjo manga no sekai I, Shōwa 20 nen – 37 nen (子供の昭和史──少女マンガの世界 I 昭和20年〜37年 "A Children's History of Showa-Era Japan: The World of Shōjo Manga I, 1945–1962") Bessatsu Taiyō series. Tokyo: Heibonsha initially followed the pre-war pattern of simple humor-strips. But Osamu Tezuka's postwar revolution, introducing intense drama and serious themes to children's manga, spread quickly to shōjo manga, particularly after the enormous success of his seminal Ribon no kishi (リボンの騎士 Princess Knight). Sally the Witch —being the first magical girl genre anime—may (even more broadly) be the first shōjo anime as well. Until the mid-1960s, men vastly outnumbered the women (for example: Toshiko Ueda, Hideko Mizuno, Masako Watanabe, and Miyako Maki) amongst the artists working on shōjo manga. Many male manga artists, such as Tetsuya Chiba,Thorn, Matt (2005) "The Moto Hagio Interview" The Comics Journal #269. functioned as rookies, waiting for an opportunity to move over to shōnen (少年 "boys'") manga. Chiba asked his wife about girls' feelings for research for his manga. At this time, conventional job opportunities for Japanese women did not include becoming a manga artist.Toku, Masami (2007) "Shojo Manga! Girls' Comics! A Mirror of Girls’ Dreams" Mechademia 2 pp.22–23 Adapting Tezuka's dynamic style to shōjo manga (which had always been domestic in nature) proved challenging. According to Matt Thorn: While some chose to simply create longer humor-strips, others turned to popular girls' novels of the day as a model for melodramatic shōjo manga. These manga featured sweet, innocent pre-teen heroines, torn from the safety of family and tossed from one perilous circumstance to another, until finally rescued (usually by a kind, handsome young man) and re-united with their families.Thorn, Matt (2008) "The Multi-Faceted Universe of Shōjo Manga", presented at Le manga, 60 ans après..., Paris, March 15. These early shōjo manga almost invariably had pre-adolescent girls as both heroines and readers. Unless they used a fantastic setting (as in Princess Knight) or a backdrop of a distant time or place, romantic love for the heroine remained essentially taboo. But the average age of the readership rose, and its interests changed. In the mid-1960s one of the few female artists in the field, Yoshiko Nishitani, began to draw stories featuring contemporary Japanese teenagers in love. This signaled a dramatic transformation of the genre.Yonezawa, Yoshihiro, ed. (1991)Kodomo no Shōwa-shi: Shōjo manga no sekai II, Shōwa 38 nen – 64 nen (子供の昭和史──少女マンガの世界 II 昭和38年〜64年 "A Children's History of Showa-Era Japan: The World of Shōjo Manga II, 1963–1989") Bessatsu Taiyō series. Tokyo: HeibonshaThorn, Matt (2005) "The Magnificent Forty-Niners" The Comics Journal #269. This may have been due to the baby boomers becoming teens, and the industry trying to keep them as readers. Between 1950 and 1969, increasingly large audiences for manga emerged in Japan with the solidification of its two main marketing genres, shōnen manga aimed at boys and shōjo manga aimed at girls. These romantic comedy shoujo manga were inspired by American TV dramas of the time.SAITO, K. Desire in Subtext: Gender, Fandom, and Women's Male-Male Homoerotic Parodies in Contemporary Japan. Mechademia. 6, 173, Nov. 2011. . The success of the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, and the gold medal won by the Japan women's national volleyball team, influenced a series of sports shoujo manga, such as Attack No. 1. In May 1967, shoujo manga began being published in tankōbon format.http://www.kyoto-seika.ac.jp/researchlab/wp/wp-content/uploads/sa_dalma_kalovics1.pdf Between roughly 1969 and 1971, a flood of young female manga artists transformed the genre again. Some, including Hagio Moto, Yumiko Oshima, and Keiko Takemiya, became known as the hana no nijū yon nen gumi (花の24年組, Year 24 Group, so named from the approximate year of birth many of them shared: Shōwa 24, or 1949). This loosely defined group experimented with content and form, inventing such new subgenres as shōnen-ai, and earning the long-maligned shōjo manga unprecedented critical praise. Other female artists of the same generation, such as Riyoko Ikeda, Yukari Ichijo, and Sumika Yamamoto, garnered unprecedented popular support with such hits (respectively) as Berusaiyu no bara (ベルサイユのばら, The Rose of Versailles), Dezainaa (デザイナー, "Designer"), and Eesu wo nerae! (エースをねらえ!, Aim for the Ace!). Schodt, Frederik L. 1986. Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics. Tokyo: Kodansha. .Gravett, Paul. 2004. Manga: Sixty Years of Japanese Comics, pages 78–80. New York: Harper Design. .Lent, 2001, op. cit., pp. 9–10. During that era, women's roles in Japanese society were changing, and women were being elected to the National Diet, and publishers responded by employing more female talent. Since the mid-1970s, women have created the vast majority of shōjo manga; notable exceptions include Mineo Maya and Shinji Wada. From 1975 shōjo manga continued to develop stylistically while simultaneously branching out into different but overlapping subgenres.Ōgi, Fusami 2004. "Female subjectivity and shōjo (girls) manga (Japanese comics): shōjo in Ladies' Comics and Young Ladies' Comics". Journal of Popular Culture, 36(4):780–803. Meiji University Professor Yukari Fujimoto writes that during the 1990s, shoujo manga became concerned with self-fulfillment. She intimates that the 1990–1991 Gulf War influenced the development of female characters "who fight to protect the destiny of a community", such as Red River, Basara, Magic Knight Rayearth, and Sailor Moon. Fujimoto opines that the shōjo manga of the 1990s showed emotional bonds between women were stronger than the bonds between a man and a woman.Fujimoto, Yukari. "Japanese Contemporary Manga (Number 1): Shōjo (Girls Manga)," Japanese Book News #56 (Summer 2008), p. 12. Major subgenres include romance, science fiction, fantasy, magical girls, yaoi, and "Ladies Comics" (in Japanese, redisu レディース, redikomi レディコミ, and josei 女性).Gravett, Paul. 2004. Manga: Sixty Years of Japanese Comics. NY: Harper Design. . p. 8.Schodt, Frederik L. 1996. Dreamland Japan: Writings on Modern Manga. Berkeley, CA: Stone Bridge Press. . Meaning and spelling As shōjo literally means "girl" in Japanese, the equivalent of the western usage will generally include the term: girls' manga (少女漫画 shōjo manga), or anime for girls (少女向けアニメ shōjo-muke anime). The parallel terms shōnen, seinen, and josei also occur in the categorisation of manga and anime, with similar qualification. Though the terminology originates with the Japanese publishers, cultural differences with the West mean that labelling in English tends to vary wildly, with the types often confused and mis-applied. Due to vagaries in the romanization of Japanese, publishers may transcribe 少女 (written しょうじょ in hiragana) in a wide variety of ways. By far the most common form, shoujo , follows English phonology , preserves the spelling, and requires only ASCII input. The Hepburn romanization shōjo uses a macron for the long vowel, though the prevalence of Latin-1 fonts often results in a circumflex instead, as in shôjo. Many English-language texts just ignore long vowels, using shojo, potentially leading to confusion with 処女 (shojo, literally: "virgin") as well as other possible meanings. Finally, transliteraters may use Nihon-shiki-type mirroring of the kana spelling: syôjyo, or syoujyo. Western adoption Western fans classify a wide variety of titles as shōjo, even though their Japanese creators label them differently. Anything non-offensive and featuring female characters may classify as shōjo manga; including the shōnen comedy Azumanga Daioh.[http://web.mit.edu/anime/www/Showings/Azumanga_Daioh.shtml Azumanga Daioh mistakenly identified as 'shōjo comedy'] on the MIT Anime Club website, last modified August 19, 2004 Similarly, as romance has become a common element of many shōjo works, any title with romance, such as the shōnen Love Hina''Chobot, Jessica Shojo Showdown, defending choice of Love Hina as #5 in the 'Top Ten Shōjo Manga', ''IGN, December 2, 2005 or the seinen Oh My Goddess! tend to get mislabeled. This confusion also extends beyond the fan community; articles aimed at the mainstream also widely misrepresent the terms. In an introduction to anime and manga, British writer Jon Courtenay Grimwood writes: "Maison Ikkoku comes from Rumiko Takahashi, one of the best-known of all 'shôjo' writers. Imagine a very Japanese equivalent of Sweet Valley High or Melrose Place. It has Takahashi's usual and highly successful mix of teenagers and romance, with darker clouds of adolescence hovering."Grimwood, Jon Courtenay "Every Picture..." Books Quarterly, (Issue 19, 2006). p. 42 Takahashi is a famous shōnen manga artist, but Maison Ikkoku, one of her few seinen titles and serialised in Big Comic Spirits, is aimed at males in their 20s. Matt Thorn, who has made a career out of studying girls' comics, attempts to clarify the matter by explaining that "shôjo manga are manga published in shôjo magazines (as defined by their publishers)". However, English publishers and stores have problems retailing shōjo titles, including its spelling. Licensees such as Dark Horse Comics have misidentified several of the seinen titles, and in particular manga and anime intended for a younger audience in Japan often contains violent or mature themes that would be targeted toward an older demographic in the US.Shojo Update: Your Comments and Our Answers, ICV2, August 23, 2001 In this way licensees often either voluntarily censor titles or re-market them toward an older audience. In the less conservative European markets, content that might be heavily edited or cut in an English-language release often remains in French, German and other translated editions. As one effect of these variations, American companies have moved to use the borrowed words that have gained name-value in fan communities, but to separate them from the Japanese meaning. In their shōjo manga range, publisher VIZ Media attempt a re-appropriation of the term, providing the definition: }} The desire to disassociate the word shōjo from its meaning, "girl", seems largely driven by fear of putting off potential new readers, particularly male ones. Manga and anime labeled as "shōjo" need not interest only girls, and some titles gain a following outside the traditional audience. For instance, Frederik L. Schodt identifies Banana Fish by Akimi Yoshida as: .}} Such successful "crossover" titles remain the exception rather than the rule, however: the archetypal shōjo manga magazine Hana to Yume has a 95% female readership, with a majority aged 17 or under. The popularity of romantic shōjo manga in America has encouraged Harlequin to release manga-styled romantic comics. Harlequin Ginger Blossom manga Circulation figures The reported average circulations for some of the top-selling shōjo manga magazines in 2007 included: For comparison, circulations for the top-selling magazines in other categories for 2007 included: (Source for all circulation figures: Japan Magazine Publishers Association [http://www.j-magazine.or.jp/data_001/index.html Japan Magazine Publishers Association Magazine Data 2007]. The publication, which relies on information provided by publishers, categorizes the magazine ''Cookie'' as josei, but Shueisha's "S-MANGA.NET" site clearly categorizes that magazine as shōjo, hence its categorization here.) Shōjo magazines in Japan In a strict sense, shōjo manga refers to a story serialized in a shōjo manga magazine (a magazine marketed to girls and young women). The list below contains past and current Japanese shōjo manga magazines, grouped according to their publishers. Such magazines can appear on a variety of schedules, including bi-weekly (Margaret, Hana to Yume, Shōjo Comic), monthly (Ribon, Bessatsu Margaret, Bessatsu Friend, LaLa), bi-monthly (Deluxe Margaret, LaLa DX, The Dessert), and quarterly (Cookie BOX, Unpoko). Weekly shōjo magazines, common in the 1960s and 1970s, had disappeared by the early 1980s. Shueisha *''Ribon'' (monthly, 1955– ) *''Ribon Original'' *''Cobalt'' *''Margaret'' (weekly, 1963– ) *''Bessatsu Margaret'' (monthly, 1964– ) *''Deluxe Margaret'' (bi-monthly, 1967– ) *''The Margaret'' (bi-monthly, 1982– ) *''bouquet'' (monthly, 1978–2000) *''bouquet de Lux'' (1980– 2000) —special irregular issue for bouquet *''bouquet selection'' (1983– ) —terminated after publishing seven anthology and artist special issues *''Cookie'' (weekly, 2000– ) *''Cookie BOX'' (quarterly 2000– ) —succeeds bouquet de Lux Jump *''Shōjo Beat (2003-2005) Kodansha * Nakayoshi * Aria * Shōjo Friend * Bessatsu Friend * Dessert * The Dessert Shogakukan *''Ciao'' *''Chu Chu'' *''Shōjo Comic'' *''Betsucomi'' *''Petit Comic'' *''Cheese!'' *''Pochette'' Hakusensha *''Hana to Yume'' *''Bessatsu Hana to Yume'' *''LaLa'' *''LaLa DX'' *''Melody'' Akita Shoten * Princess * Princess Gold * Petit Princess * Mystery Bonita * Susperia Mystery * Renai MAX Kadokawa Shoten *''Asuka'' Web magazine *''Manga Airport'' Shinshokan *''Unpoko'' Shōjo magazines outside Japan Viz Media * Shojo Beat, a shōjo manga magazine published in North America from 2005 to 2009 List of shōjo manga *''Aim for the Ace!'' *''Anmitsu Hime'' *''Akatsuki no Yona'' *''Asari-chan'' *''Blue Spring Ride'' *''Boys Over Flowers'' *''Candy Candy'' *''Cardcaptor Sakura'' **''Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card'' *''Chibi Maruko-chan'' *''Clamp School Detectives'' *''Clover'' *''Crest of the Royal Family'' *''Darker than Black'' *''Fruits Basket'' *''Full Moon o Sagashite'' *''Fushigi Yuugi'' *''Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun'' *''Glass Mask'' *''Haikara-san ga Tooru'' *''Himitsu no Akko-chan'' *''Itazura na Kiss'' *''Kamisama Kiss'' *''Kimi ni Todoke'' *''Legal Drug'' *''Love Com'' *''Maid Sama!'' *''Magic Knight Rayearth'' *''My Love Story!!'' *''Nana'' *''The One I love'' *''Ouran High School Host Club'' *''Patalliro!'' *''Peach Girl'' *''Please Save My Earth'' *''Princess Knight'' *''Revolutionary Girl Utena'' *''RG Veda'' *''The Rose of Versailles'' *''Sailor Moon'' *''Sally the Witch'' *''Seito Shokun!'' *''Shirahime-Syo: Snow Goddess Tales'' *''Shugo Chara!'' *''Skip Beat!'' *''Sukeban Deka'' *''Suki: A Like Story'' *''Tokimeki Tonight'' *''Tokyo Babylon'' *''Tokyo Mew Mew'' *''Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun'' *''The Wallflower'' *''We Were There'' *''Wish'' *''X (manga)'' *''Yūkan Club'' See also * Bishōjo, literally "pretty girl" * History of manga * Josei manga: manga intended for adult women * List of shōjo manga magazines * Magical girl: a subgenre of shōjo manga * Manga * Otome game * Seinen manga: manga intended for adult men * Shōnen manga: manga intended for boys * Shoujocon, a former anime convention, held annually from 2000 to 2003 * Sunjung manhwa: Korean shōjo manga * Yaoi: homoerotic stories about men in love for any audience * Yuri (genre): homoerotic stories about women in love for a female audience Notes References * Ultimate Manga Guide (zip), version 13.6, last modified July 31, 2004 * Shojo Anime List, last modified February 14, 1995 * Napier, Susan J., Anime: From Akira to Howl's Moving Castle (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005) * Thorn, Matt (2001) "Shôjo Manga—Something for the Girls", The Japan Quarterly, Vol. 48, No. 3 * The Boys of Shojo Manga, article by Shaenon K. Garrity * Shamoon, Deborah "Revolutionary Romance: The Rose of Versailles and the Transformation of Shojo Manga" Mechademia Vol. 2, 2007 * Takahashi Mizuki "Opening the Closed World of Shojo Manga" Japanese Visual Culture Ed. Mark MacWilliams. ME Sharpe, 2008. Further reading * Ogi, Fusami (Autumn 2001) "Beyond Shoujo, Blending Gender: Subverting the Homogendered World in Shoujo Manga (Japanese Comics for Girls)". International Journal of Comic Art 3 (2): 151–161. * * External links * Category:Shōjo manga Category:Anime and manga terminology Category:Women in Japan